Not in Service
by pingo1387
Summary: AU. Luffy's been missing for a good while now when Zoro unexpectedly receives a call from him. ZoLu, character death, one-shot.


Three months.

 _Three months_ Luffy had been gone, without a single call or text. Naturally, Zoro was starting to worry.

He sighed as he listlessly lolled on the couch. His boyfriend was usually so hyper, he would call or text Zoro several times a day, whether it was to make plans, announce that he'd be out of town for a bit, or just send him a picture of whatever "cool thing" he'd seen just then.

But then Luffy had up and disappeared. No announcement of going on vacation, no telling Zoro where he'd be—he was just gone.

 _Had_ it been three months, or had it been just two?

Zoro frowned vaguely. His memories seemed a bit messy. He faintly recalled going to Luffy's brothers to ask where he'd gone, but he couldn't remember what they'd said. His friends had been oddly quiet on the situation as well. Either Zoro couldn't remember what they'd said about it or they just didn't care.

Well, Zoro reasoned, he was never the best at remembering things in the first place. Surely the others were worried, too. Luffy was their friend as well as Zoro's boyfriend. Why _shouldn't_ they be worried?

He was considering what channel to watch when his phone suddenly buzzed with an incoming call. He picked it up and flipped it over to check the caller.

Luffy's bright face shone out of the screen (the contact picture had been set with a smiling photo) and Zoro almost dropped his phone in his haste to answer.

"Hell—hello?" he said breathlessly when he finally got a grip on it.

" _Zoro! Hi!"_

"Luffy," he said in relief, slumping onto the couch. "Luffy, thank god, I was so worried—where the _hell_ have you _been_?"

Despite his indignant tone, he couldn't help but smile when he heard that voice.

" _Sorry, I was only able to call you just now. How're you doing?"_

"I'm fine, Lu, but _where are you_?" Zoro demanded.

" _Zoro, don't worry about it, okay?"_ Luffy said, clearly avoiding the question. " _Come on, we haven't talked in forever."_

Zoro sighed. "Fine. Don't tell me."

" _If it helps, I'm . . . not in trouble or anything."_

"You've been missing for a few months," Zoro said. "Don't you know how worried I was?"

" _I'm sorry, Zoro . . ."_

"For some reason, the others don't seem worried," Zoro continued. "Not even your bros."

" _Ace and Sabo! How are they?"_

"I haven't talked to them in a while," Zoro admitted, looking up at the ceiling. "I think they're fine."

" _Oh, that's good . . . that's really good. How's everyone else?"_

"They're fine, too," Zoro said. "For some reason they've been pretty quiet recently." He snorted. "'S like they don't care about you at all."

" _What? No, they care."_

"Tell that to them," Zoro said. He sat up. "Hey, have you talked to any of the others? As long as you can call people, I mean."

" _. . . No. I've tried. I can only get through to you."_

Zoro frowned. "Weird."

" _Zoro, let's talk about something else."_

Zoro grinned and was about to respond when a knock came at his door.

"Lu, someone's here," he said hurriedly. "Can I call you back?"

" _No."_

"Oka—wait, what? Why?" Zoro said, startled.

" _I . . . I think . . . I can only contact you from my end to yours. If you call me, it wouldn't work."_

"Why not?" Zoro said impatiently. "Never mind. Just call back this evening or something."

" _Okay!"_

"Luffy . . . I've missed you."

" _I miss you, too."_

Zoro made a kissy noise at the phone before hanging up and heading to the front door.

"Oh, hey guys," he said. Usopp and Chopper—a dark-skinned man with a long nose and a burly man with tan skin and a blue nose—stood at his doorstep. "Just dropping by?"

He stepped aside to let them in and led them to the living room.

"Just . . ." Usopp cleared his throat. "Just wondering how you were doing . . ."

"I'm fine," Zoro said with a grin.

"You seem happy," Chopper said quietly.

"Luffy just called, _finally_ ," Zoro said. "That guy shouldn't make us worry so much, right?"

He looked at them, expecting affirmation, but frowned when he saw their faces.

"What?"

". . . Luffy called you?" Usopp said tentatively.

"Yeah," Zoro said. "Just now. He wouldn't tell me where he was, but he asked how everyone was doing."

"Can we—see your phone?" Chopper said tentatively.

"What, don't believe me? Here—" Zoro handed them his phone after he went to the recent calls section. "See? He called."

Usopp's eyes looked like they might pop out of his head. Chopper just looked confused.

"Can you . . . call him back?" Usopp said slowly.

"He told me not to, but I guess I can try," Zoro said. He grabbed his phone and tapped Luffy's number as he held it up to his ear and waited.

The phone rang only once before a recorded message played.

 _Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service._

He frowned. "Says it's out of service," he reported.

Usopp and Chopper glanced at each other.

"There . . . must have been some kind of mistake, then," Chopper said quietly.

"Mistake?"

"Like—" Usopp struggled for words. "—You dreamed that Luffy called you, and that thing in the recent calls was from a while ago—"

Zoro scowled. "I wasn't dreaming. It was him."

"Usopp, let's go," Chopper said, standing quickly. "We have that thing in half an hour, remember?"

"What—oh, yeah," Usopp said. He glanced at Zoro nervously. "Uh—keep your head up, okay?"

"What?"

But they were already gone.

Zoro frowned and looked at his phone. Luffy had definitely called him, so why did that message play when _he_ tried to call _him_? Some kind of prank?

He dialed the number, but once again, that message played.

 _Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service._

"Fine," he muttered. "Guess I'll just wait."

He grinned.

"At least he's fine."

* * *

As the sun set, true to his word, Luffy called Zoro again. Zoro dove for his phone and quickly answered.

"Hey," he said.

" _Hey, Zoro! Who was at the door?"_

"Usopp and Chopper."

" _Oh! How're they? What'd they want? Are they fine?"_

Zoro frowned. "You should just come home and find these things out for yourself, y'know."

" _I can't do that."_

"What do you mean?"

" _Don't worry about it. So how're they?"_

Zoro sighed. "They were pretty quiet, but they seemed okay. They didn't believe me when I said you called."

" _Zoro . . . I wanted to talk about that . . ."_

"Yeah? What's up?" Zoro said, listening carefully. Luffy sounded unusually serious.

" _Remember how I said I tried calling the others, but I could only get through to you? I think that's because you—you don't know where I am. If you find out where I am, I won't be able to call you anymore."_

Zoro frowned. "What kind of logic is that?"

" _Just listen to me, please. I want to keep calling you. Don't go looking for me, and don't ask the others where I am."_

"They've known all this time and never told me?" Zoro muttered indignantly.

" _Zoro . . ."_

"Alright, I won't go looking for you," Zoro promised.

" _Thanks!"_

"Hey, remember our first date?" Zoro said, lying back on the couch.

" _Of course! We went to that restaurant, and you had the salmon, and I had the burger!"_

"You ate that burger in the blink of an eye," Zoro said, laughing. "That poor waiter looked scared of you."

" _I don't blame him! I'm tough!"_

"You're so not tough," Zoro teased. "I could grab you and throw you up in the air."

" _Could not!"_

"Could too, and I've done it before," Zoro reminded him.

" _You didn't warn me first! It startled me!"_

"Admit it, you loved it."

" _Yeah . . . but that's not the point."_

They talked for hours. When Luffy heard Zoro yawn into the phone, he ordered him to go to bed, and he'd call back tomorrow.

"G'night, then," Zoro mumbled. "Love you."

" _I love you, too."_

* * *

Over the next few days, Luffy continued to call Zoro, and they would just spend hours on end talking. Talking about their past dates, and what they loved about each other, and how much they missed each other.

But whenever Zoro tried calling Luffy, he would get that same message . . .

 _Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service._

And when he asked Luffy about this, Luffy shrugged it off as "a mystery" and quickly steered the topic away.

As the weeks went on, Zoro's friends visited him, seemingly just to say hi, but their eyes showed worry and concern, and perhaps . . . pity?

The reactions when he told them Luffy was calling varied from Sanji's anger, to Nami's sadness, to Franky's confusion, and to Robin's suspicion. He ended up kicking them out—what kind of friends were they, to not believe him?—and continued his daily regimen of talking to Luffy.

* * *

"Luffy, I can't take it anymore."

" _What?"_

"Tell me where you are," Zoro said desperately. "I don't care if I have to hop on a boat, or a plane, just tell me where you are and I'll go there. I want to see you so bad."

" _Zoro, if you do that, we won't be able to talk anymore,"_ Luffy said urgently.

"But I can see you, and we can talk after that! Just tell me!"

A moment of silence.

" _Okay."_

Zoro sat up and ran to the front door, phone pressed to his ear as he shoved his feet into his shoes. "So?"

" _I'm not too far. You're in your house, right?"_

"Yeah."

" _Okay. There's a hill next to it, right? Go up the hill. Don't get lost, Zoro."_

Zoro scowled, though Luffy could not see it. "Yeah, yeah."

He headed up the hill and waited at the top. "Now what?"

" _Zoro, have I ever told you that I love your hair? It's so soft, and the color is amazing, and it's so fun to play with."_

Zoro smiled with a touch of impatience. "Luffy, come on, tell me where to go."

" _. . . Okay. Head straight down the road. Don't take any turns."_

Zoro slowly followed directions, checking himself every few seconds. "And keep heading straight?"

" _Yeah. Stop when you get out of the shady area."_

Zoro continued walking.

" _Zoro, I love the hugs you give, and I miss them a lot. You're really good at hugging."_

"You're even better," Zoro protested.

" _No, you're the best, because it's_ you _. I really liked it when we watched TV together and you were holding me and even though I fell asleep in your arms you didn't move an inch, you just stayed there and sometimes you fell asleep too, but sometimes you stayed awake all night, right?"_

"Yeah," Zoro said fondly. He stopped. "Hey, I'm out of the shady area. What now?"

" _. . . Look to your right."_

Zoro glanced to his left. "You wanna meet in this building?"

" _Your other right, Zoro . . ."_

Zoro glanced to the other side and frowned faintly. It was a cemetery.

"Odd place for a meeting, Lu," he remarked. "So where are you?"

" _. . . Head in there . . . don't . . . turn . . ."_

Luffy's voice was starting to break up.

"Lu? Everything okay?"

" _Fine . . . Zoro . . . straight back . . . fifth row . . ."_

Zoro headed slowly in through the wrought-iron gates and went straight in. When he reached the fifth row, he glanced around and frowned. Luffy was nowhere to be seen.

"Lu? I'm here. Where are you?"

" _Side that . . . your earrings . . . on . . ."_

Zoro started to move.

" _Zoro . . . love you . . . s- much . . . tell -th-rs . . . same . . ._ "

"I love you, too," Zoro said.

He skimmed the headstones as he passed by them.

Then he stopped cold at the tenth one in the row.

 _Here lies_

A dial tone reached his ear.

 _Luffy D Monkey_

He fell to his knees in front of the grave.

 _1990 - 2015_

The phone clattered out of his grip.

 _Beloved brother and friend_

His breath came quick and short in disbelieving gasps.

 _You are our sunshine_

"Luffy, no, no," he moaned, and he clutched his head as a flood of memories poured in, like water from a burst dam—

 _Car-crash-funeral-tears-departed-can't-be-true-Luffy-dead-can't-be-no-he's-not-dead-he-can't-be-dead_

"No, I didn't want to remember," he whispered. He bowed his head. "I didn't want to—remember _this_ —!"

He began to sob. "Luffy, you said you weren't in trouble, you damn idiot," he said in a choked voice. "You told me—"

He gasped and turned to his phone, which had turned itself off. He frantically seized it and turned it on, going to the recent calls.

"I can talk to you," he said through his tears with a desperate smile. "I can still talk to you. Luffy—"

 _Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service._

"No," he said, insistently dialing again. "No, Luffy, you're _there_ , we can talk—"

 _Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in_

"No!"

 _Sorry, the number you have dialed is not_

"Yes—it— _is_!" Zoro yelled, punching in the number manually this time.

 _Sorry, the number you have dialed is_

"Shut UP!"

 _Sorry, the number you have dialed_

 _Sorry, the number you have_

 _Sorry, the number_

 _Sorry, the_

 _Sorry_

 _Sorry_

 _Sorry_

"Luffy, I'm so sorry—"

 _Sorry_

 _Sorry_

 _Sorry_

"I should have listened to you, if I'd listened we could still talk—"

 _Sorry_

"No, _I'm_ sorry, Lu—there was so much more we could have talked about—"

 _Sorry_

In a fit of frustration Zoro threw his phone to the ground and knelt in front of the grave.

"LUFFY!"

"Zoro . . ."

Zoro looked up, his face streaked messily with tears, to see his friends.

"Guys," he said. "Luffy's . . ."

"You closed your mind to the truth for so long," Robin said quietly. "It was only a matter of time. We tried to tell you, but . . ."

"You didn't listen," Sanji finished.

"He really did call," Zoro whispered, turning back to the grave. "He called me. He warned me. Said that he could only call me because I didn't know—I was too stupid to listen. If I hadn't known . . . I could still talk to him."

"But now you can accept it," Nami said softly, her voice quavering. "You can move on, now that you know."

Zoro stared at the headstone, reading it over and over.

"You're right," he whispered. He rubbed fiercely at his eyes with his forearm. "I can't believe he's— _gone_."

"He's in your heart," Franky said quietly, not bothering to stem his own flow of tears.

". . . Yeah," Zoro said softly. He closed his eyes as another small sob escaped him.

"Can I have . . . just a few more minutes here?" he whispered.

"We'll wait outside," Usopp said quickly. He and the others backed out of the row and left the cemetery.

Zoro stared at the headstone.

"Luffy . . ." he said softly. "Sunny days . . . won't be the same without you."

He brushed his hand over the engraved name.

"I can still feel your hand," he murmured. "I can still hear your voice."

Slowly he took his hand away.

"Guess you wouldn't want me moaning and grieving forever, huh?"

He wiped at his face again.

"I'll be back to visit you," he said, standing. "It's a promise."

And he left the cemetery—but not before stowing his phone in his pocket.


End file.
